New Leeds city centre bus stop to meet growing park and ride demand

Due to the huge popularity of park and ride bus services from Elland Road and Temple Green into Leeds, since Monday 19 February passengers have had two stops on the city centre�s Boar Lane.

In addition, the frequency of peak-time services from the Elland Road site has been increased to provide an additional 225% capacity during the busiest periods.

Cllr Keith Wakefield, Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority�s Transport Committee said:��Each week, the growing numbers of people taking advantage of the park and ride sites at Elland Road and Temple Green, is having a significant effect on the economic and environmental cost of congestion in Leeds by removing over 6,000 car journeys from the city centre�s streets.

�As passengers numbers have escalated, so has the demand on the Boar Lane stop, particularly during the evening peak, so from Monday the two services will have their own, adjacent, stops and shelters and there will be additional peak time capacity from Elland Road thanks to more frequent buses.

�PR1 services for Elland Road will remain at Stop T9, where there is also a park and ride ticket machine, and PR2 services for Temple Green will drop off and pick up at Stop T8.�

Cllr Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council�s executive member for regeneration, transport and planning said:��Along with improved bus services, park and ride is a key element of our transport strategy for the city, so I�m pleased to see I becoming a �victim� of its own success and requiring us to provide exclusive stops for both services.

�I am pleased that we have been able to develop these successful services with our partners at West Yorkshire Combined Authority and First West Yorkshire, and look forward to the ongoing growth of park and ride in our city.�

Will Pearson, Operations Director at First Leeds, said:��We�re proud to operate the Leeds City Centre Park & Ride services and we�re pleased to support today�s announcement so that we can encourage even more people to use our successful park & ride network.

�Buses are key to tackling congestion and reducing emissions and in fact, a fully-loaded double decker bus can take 75 cars off the road. If more people tried Park & Ride, rather than driving into the city centre, then that would ease congestion and would improve bus journey times. We look forward to welcoming new and existing customers on board over the coming weeks.�

With increasing numbers of people choosing to leave their car at the 800-space Elland Road facility or the 1,000-space site to the east of the city at Temple Green, and complete their journey by bus, the numbers waiting at the existing Boar Lane stop have been growing.

Parking out of town at the 800-space Elland Road or 1,000-space Temple Green sites and completing their journey in 10 to 15 minutes on frequent, modern, low-emission buses costs passengers from just �2.70 per day.

Services 209, 229 and X29, which currently use Stop T8, are moving along one stop to�T7 (code�45010686) from Saturday 17 February as part of this weekend�s county-wide service changes, which are also detailed on the Metro website.